Golf Articles

TIGER WOODS: Eye of the Tiger - Tiger Woods Turns to Design

By Brian Sherman

THE CLIFFS-A COLLECTION of
soon-to-be eight master-planned
communities tucked seamlessly into the
placid Blue Ridge Mountains of North
Carolina and South Carolina, amid the
ageless beauty of seemingly
endless acres of national forests
and state parks and near a city whose
residents enjoy a quality of life unmatched
almost anywhere in the United States-is
already about as close to heaven as it gets
for avid golfers.

As the 2008 Masters Tournament
approached, just down the road in Augusta,
Georgia, Cliffs property owners already had
the option of playing five magnificent
courses created by some of the greatest
names in golf, including Jack Nicklaus and
Tom Fazio, and three additional courses
were under construction
or in the planning stages.

How in this world does it get any better
for those who love the temperate climate and
the unspoiled vista of the Carolina mountains
and relish the prospect of playing a different
course every day of the week on innovative
layouts
bounded only by the vision and imagination
of some of the sport's most revered
architects?

You could throw a Tiger into the mix.

Tiger Woods, certainly the most talented
golfer ever to play the game and possibly the
most recognizable person on the planet,
announced in August 2007 that he would
design and build his first American golf
course at High Carolina, the eighth
community at The Cliffs, which stretches
along a corridor that engulfs Asheville, North
Carolina, and Greenville, South
Carolina.

"We couldn't be more excited to have him working with our team."

"We feel super about it. It's a great
relationship," Scott Beville, president of The
Cliffs Communities,
Inc., comments. "There's no question about
Tiger's attention to detail as a golfer, and
he's taking that same level and applying it to
the design business. He's been very
involved. We couldn't be more excited to
have him working with our team.

"Woods, who also plans to play a role in
establishing the master plan for the High
Carolina community, TIGER is already
developing his first golf course, nearly 300
homes, a hotel, a golf academy and a retail
center in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
In his relatively new career as a golf course
designer, he says he will favor quality over
quantity.

"My goal is to design a handful of unique
courses around the world," he says. "The
Cliffs is a perfect fit for my first American
design. Seeing what the world's best
designers have created is inspiring, and I'm
looking forward to adding my own style.

"When I first visited High Carolina,
I loved the site and the spectacular
views of the Asheville area and the Blue
Ridge Mountains," he adds. "When I got to
the top of the mountain and looked across
those meadows, I knew this would be the
site of my first American design."

Woods, who launched Tiger Woods
Design in 2005, after dominating the PGA
tour for almost a decade, says he wanted to
learn as much as possible about what
makes a great course before expanding his
role from taming challenging golf courses to
building them.

"I've spent a lot of time talking
with experts in this field and gathering as
much information as possible about what a
great course should be," he says. "Friends
like Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio have been
a tremendous help by sharing their support
and advice. I hope I can bring as much to this
industry as they have over the years."

Woods is well aware of the huge gap in
golfing skill between he and his fellow
professionals and people who earn their
living in other ways and simply enjoy playing
the game for fun and exercise. He plans to
design his golf courses accordingly.

"It's our vision to cater to all skill levels
and design a course people want to play
again and again," says Byron Bell, president
of Tiger Woods Design. "We want to ensure
that the design is suitable and fun for the
casual golfer but can serve as a challenge
to a professional as well."

Preliminary work on the course at High
Carolina was underway in the spring of
2008, and, according to Beville, the course
is expected to open around the middle of
2010. Regardless of how Woods molds the
mountain scenery into a top-flight layout,
motorized golf carts won't be a staple at
High Carolina.

"Walking is integral to golf, but it will be
unique to have a walking course at
elevations of up to 4,000 feet," Woods
comments. "This golf course will be different
in the sense that once you get up there, you
won't hear traffic. You won't hear anything
else but the birds and the trees and a few
streams. It's getting back to nature and how
golf was designed to be played.

"One of the most interesting aspects of
the course is that even though it's at 4,000
feet, there's only a couple hundred feet of
elevation change," Beville adds. "Walking a
course at 4,000 feet is not an everyday
experience. And the natural beauty and
location will make this course something
unique to the entire region."

And an incredible course it will be if
Woods' designing talents match those of his
playing skills. While growing up in Cypress,
California, in the Los Angeles area, he was
featured in Golf Digest at the
age of 5. He enjoyed a wildly successful
amateur career and

"... I knew this would be the site of my first American design."

won the NCAA golf championship while at
Stanford University.

Born Eldrick Woods, Tiger was given the
name by which the world knows him by his
father, Earl, after a Vietnamese soldier
named Tiger the elder Woods met during the
Vietnam conflict.

Tiger turned pro in the summer of 1996
and started turning his talent
into major tournament victories the following
spring. At the age of 21, he captured his first
of four Masters titles, scorching the rest of
the field at Augusta with a record-breaking
270. He's one of only three back-to-back
Masters winners, along with Nicklaus and
Nick Faldo, and he's also come out on top in
three British Opens, two U.S. Opens and
four PGA Championships. He was the
youngest and one of only five golfers to claim
all four parts of golf's hallowed Grand Slam,
and, when he won his second Masters in
2001, he was the first golfer ever to hold all
four titles at the same time.

In fewer than a dozen years on the PGA
tour, Woods has won 64 tournaments, tied
with the immortal
Ben Hogan and trailing only golf legends
Sam Snead at 82 and Nicklaus
at 73. He was the PGA Player of the Year in
1997 and, except for 2004, claimed that
honor every year from 1999 to 2007.

The Cliffs was founded in 1991 by Jim
Anthony, who built his real estate
development business in his spare time. At
the age of 40, he decided
to follow his dream of becoming
a full-time developer. He still lives in his
hometown of Pickens, South Carolina, and
he still believes in giving back to the
community. He helped The Cliffs establish
the Carolina Legacy Trust, a philanthropic
organization that benefits groups including
the American Patriots
Scholarship Fund, which provides
educational resources for the children of
fallen soldiers, as well as Zest Quest, a
nonprofit children's health initiative.

Anthony's dedication to wellness and
children through his foundations played a key
role in Woods' decision to build his first
American golf course at High Carolina. At a
press conference held to announce his
involvement with The Cliffs, Woods
commented: "I've been offered many times
to design golf courses and never did
because I never felt comfortable with the
partnership. But after meeting Jim, it was an
instant yes. He is the sole reason I'm doing
this. He's just a great person in what he's
done for all of his communities and for the
example he sets. That's the reason I'm
here."